WeeMee

I found this photo the other day I must have been around 7 or 8 years old a picture from a happier time. Don't I look a little angel? Brought back a lot of very happy memories.

Birthdays and Christmas

It's my birthday on thursday, another year older but not any the wiser. I feel old this week, when asked my age I usually reply that I am older than the hills but younger than the sea and this week I really feel like I am that old. I am sitting here wondering what happened to the young man I used to be. For a long time now I have felt like I was just into my twenties now this week it feels more like my seventies. I still refuse to think that I can do too much although my body screams at me to stop and take a deep breath take five minutes and think about what you're doing. I won't of course take any notice, I'll just keep on going which of course is the silly option. All my working life I have worked on average 50 to 60 hours a week and I still think I can carry on doing this, I do get tired quicker but I also think that's just a phase and it'll change back to the way it was soon enough. Christmas will be here soon as well and I need to start thinking about what to get my nearest and dearest. What would they like? Answers on the back of a ten pound note please and sent to the usual address placed in a self addressed envelope.

I saw an article in a computer magazine the other day about placing a tip jar on your web site or blog site. I actually thought about doing it until I realised that I'm the only one who reads this drivel and the state of the content I wouldn't tip for it.

If a drifting web vagrant - someone who surfs aimlessly through the internet - lands on this blog and reads it I'd be honoured if that person left a comment even just confirming that I do write drivel.

Anyhow have another nice day and try and commit an act of kindness to someone in the next few days.

Depression / Recession

We are entering a new era not seen in almost 80 years a recession or depression, call it what you will. This has been caused by the greed for profit by banks and financial institutions they cannot deny that this is the case. In their greed they have wasted Billions upon Billions of Pounds and then turn round and say it wasn't my fault. The taxpayer is bailing them out to the tune of hundreds of Billions of pounds and still they want more.Interest rates are reduced and they won't pass on the savings, their greed knows no bounds. Where is all this taxpayers money going?

I am still baffled by shares and how people are selling shares which reduces their value. Are these shares being sold to people with no brains, who in their right mind would buy something to immediately see these shares plummet in value.

But enough of this trying to be serious I am old enough to know better, the numpties who rule the planet and big business never truly know what they are doing. It is pure luck when they can con the populace at almost every turn.

last thought for today:
It's just as well I am the only person who reads this stuff, nay drivel on here otherwise people might think I'm mad, and not just a grumpy old man.

Work Life Balance

What does that mean, work, Life, balance? Once more it's been too long since I wrote anything here, I never seem to have time.
Time is a truly mysterious thing it is a concept which doesn't have a fixed length. I know something of the scientific meaning of time and that it is measured by clocks which are acurate to 1 millionth of a second over many many years. But the human body doesn't measure time like that. When you are doing something that you are truly enjoying, time goes by so quickly that an hour can seem like seconds. The opposite is also true, when doing something that you don't really enjoy, time can seem to stand still and seconds can seem like hours. Most of my days are like the former filled with hours that are like seconds and time just flies by. Even though it is well over a month since I wrote anything here it seems just a few days.
This morning sees that beginning of a new dawn in the USA with the election of a new President, an historical moment indeed, the first black American to be voted to their highest office. I wonder what changes this will make to the world,we will just have to wait and see.

Thoughtless

It's been almost a month since I was here - no one notices though - I haven't had much to say really. I am working too hard as usual not getting enough time off and haven't been near the golf stick things since June. I have been watching the beginnings of the great depression of 2008 on Sky news and wondering how it will effect me and my family. I know that governments all over the world are trying to bail out these mega financial institutions. But is it the right thing to do, when you consider that it was these self same institions that have caused the problem. I still can't get my head round this short selling business. My understanding is that person 1 borrows shares from person 2 and then sells them then buys them back at a lower price then returns them to person 2 and pockets the difference. So if p1 borrows 100,000 shares at £10 each and sells them - £1,000,000 value - he puts this in his pocket then when the shares have fallen to say £5 each he buys back the 100,000 shares - value £500,000 - and keeps £500,000 as his profit. Thats all well and good so far. When p1 gives p2 his shares back they are now valued at half what they were borrowed for so p2 has made a major loss on the deal where is p2's insentive to keep doing this. Take HBOS for instance short sellers in May borrowed shares at around £12 each and hammered down the value of these shares to around £3 each to make enormous profits then again just last week to hammer them again down as low as £0.88. The question has to be asked which idiots kept devalueing their own holdings by loaning out their stock to these 'spivs' and morally these people are thieves surely as I would go to jail if I tried to sell something I didn't own.
The life of accountants truly are mysterious.

It's been a while

It's been a while since I added anything here, don't know why just too busy I suppose.

Happenings since last I wrote.

My nephew David got married to Andrea and a great day was had by all. The rain stayed off until the end of the day, which was extremely good of it, but it made up for it when we were going home, deluge would be too kind a word for the way it chucked it down. The Irrocco Pier in South Queensferry was an excellent choice of venue for the wedding and couldn't fault the food or the bar prices. Only damper on the day was that I had the worst headache I have ever experienced in my life which lasted for the whole day, but seperating the ache from the day I enjoyed my self.

Other than that I've had my holidays, didn't manage to get away, but got some DIY done not as much as I should have but enough. Enjoyed that so much I'm taking another fortnight off from next week.

On strike today for more pay. Will we get more? Only when the unions and employers have kept us out long enough to save enough money, from not paying us while we're off, to give us it back as a meagre pay rise.

Oh! bestest news though is I am going to be a granddaddy. Sharon and Dale have announced that Sharon is pregnant and is due in March 2009, I guess she has to be pregnant for there to be any hope of me being a grandpop. Grandparents on all sides are very happy for them and wait with bated breath for the happy bundle of joy to appear. Good one S n D.

Back soon with more ramblings of a quite normal derranged mind.

Bio fuels the con of this very new century

The world is finally waking up to the nonsense which is bio fuels. At last people are seeing that big business are only after vast profits from biofuels. Bio fuels, when they were first mooted ten or twenty years ago, where going to be a way to use up waste materials from the likes of plywood, paper manufacture and furniture makers who have a great deal of waste wood in pulp and sawdust form. This waste would be pelleted for use in furnaces to heat factories and communities instead of being dumped in landfill sites. Later it was also thought that this waste could be distilled and use as bio diesel. A very laudable purpose for a waste material, but then business saw the potential to con the masses into thinking this is a green dream and is going to help save the planet. There are many things wrong with this premise.
1. Bio Fuels are combusted and produce as much CO2 as coal and gas do.
2. There is insufficient raw material coming from manufacture to make it a viable commercial endeavour , it's fine as a local answer to a local problem.
3. To make it commercially viable arable land would have to be removed from food production to grow bio mass crops causing so many other problems about how do you feed people if you no longer grow crops or rear animals, the main answer to this is you can now charge higher prices for foodstuffs.
4. The government without a second thought about bio fuels gave these businesses tax breaks so they could produce these fuels.While generaly the government can't see beyond taxing everything in sight as an answer to everything so they are particularly useless at trying to save the planet.

It very often breaks my heart that people are not trying to solve the problems of the planet but are hell bent on exploiting it for profit.

Meandering 2

I am one of life's great daydreamers. I spend a lot of time dreaming about what I would do if I won the lottery, probably never will though. Even putting the word probably in the last sentence shows that I am an optimist. I am an optimist and proud of it I like to always think a positive spin on everyday things and happenings. It would be so easy to take the lazy attitude of quite a lot of people and think negatively, but that wouldn't be much fun at the end of the day. Take one of my favourite subjects at the moment global warming. I laugh at the way a lot of people are trying to solve the 'problem' by taxing it to the hilt. I would much rather they tried to make the available fuels cleaner. It's now over a hundred years since the advent of the internal combustion engine surely some research has uncovered a way to make their fuels cleaner and polute less. If they oil companies haven't found a way then they have committed a great crime against humanity. They cannot have thought that fossil fuels would last forever or that the dirt and grime produced would be allowed by the masses to continue. Has the Industrial revolution ended? What has happend to imagination and endeavour? We should have been driving around in some sort of hybrid vehicles by now which would run for the most part on electricity with a hydrogen powered engine keeping the batteries topped up.
Watch this space for more of my wondering mind.

Meandering

I most times come to my blog with a clear idea of what I want to write, but by the time I've logged in and clicked on everything to get to the new post page I've forgotten what I wanted to say here.............

Global warming again

I was just wondering the other day how long will it take the meany greenies to realise that fizzy drinks like coke, tizer, irn bru etc. are all made with the injection of CO2 - the dreaded green house gas. And how long before they will demand the banning of said drinks as contributing to global warming.

At which point the planet populace will surely realise that global warming and meany greenies are all stark staring mad

Sharon & Dale's BBQ

Had a great time food was good too. I'll have to get a WII.

Greener energy

I'd like the Scottish government to really get behind greener energy so long as it doesn't become an excuse to rip people off. There really is a danger in Britain from the rip off culture. I would really like to heat my home from ground source geothermal energy but I am stopped from doing it by the cost. Most people need the government to hand out very substantial grants to enable them to get into this. The average cost of completing a renewable scheme/project for the home is around £8000 and the Scottish Government through the Energy Trust will give a grant of around £4000. This is good but I want to completely remove my dependency on energy suppliers which would mean installing geothermal, wind generating, solar generating and maybe air source heating plant. This would allow me to remove the gas supply to my home and all heating would be free once the cost of installation was completely paid which could take 10 years.

June

Here we are in June and the sun is shining for a little longer each day and there is hope of summer in the air. Summer holidays and the chance to play enough golf that my game might improve instead of remaining at the pitiable state it is in just now. I will probably just continue playing very little and doing ever more DIY in the home. I am about a week away from asking for a completion certificate for my extension and then it's on to the kitchen remodel, a major project once more. No rest as they say for the wicked - I keep trying to remember what it was I did.
Sharon it's your birthday tomorrow Friday 6th and I would like to wish you a very happy Birthday. will I mention your age better not, you know what it is ;>

Jokes!! I shouldn't do them

That was a really crap joke. I am old enough to know better.

joke

Heard this the other day and thought it was funny.
A man sees an advert for a talking dog and says to himself 'I'd like that'.
So he goes round to the address and rings the door bell.
The dog answers and say 'can I help you'.
The man goes WOW it really is a talking dog.
he asks the dog how come it can talk.
the dog says its always been able to talk and that it used to be in the SAS. The only SAS dog ever.
The man goes wow, sas dog brilliant.
Yeah I used to walk about then report back on the enemy positions.
I was also in the emergency rescue services. I used to crawl through rubble and find the people who were trapped the tell the guys where they were.
Just then the owner of the dog comes through to see who is at the door and the man asks 'why are you selling your amazing dog'
she says its 'because its such a f*#/> Liar'

Global Warming or not

I see in the papers today that some scientists are saying that global warming has stopped for now and it may be ten years before it starts again. They obviously have enough funding to keep them busy for a while and just don't want to appear greedy.

How on earth can anyone possibly take the global warning lobby seriously ever again after that statement?

Blog note

Just had a thought that someone other than me might actually read these blogs of mine. That would completely corrupt their minds. So I think I better make it absolutely clear that the accuracy of anything mentioned here, what ever it is, cannot be guaranteed to be right wrong or even a figment of my imagination. And I will not be held responsible if anyone takes it the wrong way so there.

Have a nice day - or not - or night - whatever - be good at least
PS I had to come back and change the word in red above as I couldn't even spell that right.

April and other things

Almost at the end of April and temperatures are still low 8 to 11C we even had a snow flurry the other day. There is still the odd day which gives hope of a spring and maybe even a summer to come. Plenty of April showers still and cold winds.

Our beloved lords and masters have removed the lowest band of income tax essentially doubling the tax burden of up to 70% of the working population. The media is talking about 5,000,000 people losing out it will be a lot more than this. Every couple who have no children at home who earn less than £18,000 will have their tax double from paying 10% it's gone up to 20% of their income above £5400. This proves the rule that the Labour Party is not and has never been the party looking after the lower paid. Like all politicians it's a case of I'm alright, what are you moaning about. I am one of those low paid and during the term of this Labour government the amount of my income that goes back to national and local government is now around 65% of my monthly income, it's sometimes more. It obviously depends on what I spend but there seems to be a tax connected with everything in life; VAT on just about everything, council tax, excise duty on this customs duty on that, climate change levy on gas and electricity, Fossil fuel duty on gas and Electricity, Insurance premium tax the list goes on and on and we have to pay them everytime we walk out our front door. They even want to charge us a congestion charge for being caught up in the congestion they cause by narrowing roads and put speed bumps everywhere.

Enough said though, my rants won't change anything, I just hope that the politicians get a fright with some big name career politicians of all parties failing to be re-elected next time round. They won't lose out they will simply get larger pay packets from big business as consultants. But it might show the younger, newer politicos that their coats remain forever on a shaky nail.

Bio fuels

I see that people are finally waking up to the nonsense which is biofuels. Biofuels are crops which are grown to be converted into a fuel source either as a diesel type liquid for combustion engines or a dry pellet for burning. To grow these crops perfectly good arable land which has been used to grow food crops is being turned over to produce crops to be burned. Where was the sense in that it doesn't reduce CO2 emmissions it just changes the source of the emmisions. It also shows up the rubbish which is spouted by the Global Warming Brigade. If CO2 is causing global warming then why are the GWB content to talk about carbon contracts and trading your carbon quota to someone elses quota, or even buying carbon quotas from third world countries to allow you to produce more CO2. If CO2 is causing global warming, which is very doubtful, then all talk and research should be spent on eliminating CO2 emmisions. But of course it's not it is seen as a nice little earner by both the scientific community and governments of all persuasions. Scientists are being handed money by the truck full to research the problem and governments are taxing everyone in sight for producing carbon whether they do so or not.

Extension

I am almost finished building the extension to my house. It has taken a year and is slowly coming to an end, I hope to get all the completion certificates soon and then we'll have a small celebration as a topping out ceremony. Already started planning the new kitchen and what that entails.

We got a memory foam mattress topper a couple of weeks ago and what a difference it makes to your sleep. My wife Babbs says she sleeps like a log, I said that she keeps me up all night with the sound of her bark - Joke. It really does let you have a good nights sleep.

the names the same

Walter T from the plasma and Dodderer we are the same person. Just thought I'd say that.

IQ test

Sad person that I am I found a site where you can take an IQ test, so I took it. The test takes about 15 minutes and at the end you find out how high or low your IQ is. I took the MENSA test 14 years ago and got a score / IQ of 132 this time I achieved a score of 134 This means that I am a right bright spark up there in the top 2% of the high IQ's in the country. Always knew I was a right 'headcase' hahaha.

Hey happy March to you

Welcome to March and the almost start of spring and the better weather ( the boy lives in a dream world so he does ).

The last few days it has been blowing a gale and that is depressing, it's been like this just about long enough to start thinking it will never end but it always does. Today the sun is shining and it's quite mild almost reaching 7C, warm enough for a T shirt to be worn.

When you suffer from SAD the joy of seeing the sun is palpable, it makes your heart beat a little faster and gives you a warm glow inside, standing in the sunshine for 10 minutes also helps.

I got a 'new' car this week to replace the old one that died a couple of weeks ago, same car younger model.

Blogs

I continue to hope that I won't be the only contributor to this blog it would be nice if other Thomson's could at least say hello.

How long is this winter going to last it's the longest cold spell for about 15 years that I can remember. Still they do say that a cold winter means a warm summer, that's something to look forward to. It will be good to see the sun again. I am one of those people who suffers from SAD and needs to see the sun every day or the dullness really does make me depressed. Thought I'd share this with the ghosts of the ether - the only readers of my thoughts. Some folks think I'm a workaholic but I'm not as bad as this person.

Take it easy and I'll be back for another thought soon

Slide show

I thought I better explain the slide show on the right. These are photo's of me and Dale my son-in-law building my extension last year there are also pics of my family. I had hired a mini digger to excavate the foundations and get rid of the waste from the driveway - just how much fun can a grown man have- it was worth every penny of the hire charge. The new building gives us a new entrance hall and a utility room/ cloakroom fantastic extra space which was much needed. Still lots more to do to the house next will be a new kitchen which will get done as we get the money together.

Where are you

My car died the other week, you never realise how much you miss it till its gone do you? I didn't know how lazy I had become. I have been jumping in the car for years now even to travel just a few hundred metres. Now I am having to push myself really hard to walk to the shops. The worst thing is I do need the excercise even if it's only a short distance daily.

Thoughts

About my Thomson's My father came originally from the area around the village of Fauldhouse and as far as I could see he seems to be the first of that name to leave the area and move to the big city of Edinburgh. I have traced my fathers line all the way back to around 1720 and they all stayed within a couple of miles of Fauldhouse. Fauldhouse by the way is just along the road from West Calder. I never found out how he met my mother who came from the Saltcoats and Ardrossan area. Suffice to say that they met and were married around 1947. My mothers maiden name was Johnstone I think I'll start another group by that name to see if anyone from out west gets in touch. I have 4 brothers (one deceased) and one sister. We are not really what could be called a close family. I sometimes think that I am the black sheep, though why that should be I don't know, I only hear from my family once in a blue moon and there's not many of them. I stopped getting in touch with them when, after many years, it finally sunk in that they never initiated contact with me and my wife and daughter.
Believe it or not I am not bitter about that, I just wonder some days why it is the way it is.
I have a good life with my wife and I am extremely proud of my daughter and how she has grown up and the great pick she made in her husband Dale they are so good together.
Anyway thats enough about me for now I hope that I don't just end up with a blog were I ramble to myself and that other Thomsons will take part.

Hello

Is there anyone out there named Thomson who wants to be part of this.
Leave a comment.
Get to know me and I'll get to know you.